Backstep!
by hikahika
Summary: Sometimes, we can't help but look back, whine, and complain. You can't stop us from looking back. It started with a Chicken Leg, Casual Fate, and the Pink Blob. The background story of a Stalker, his normal life, and something we call Lukewarm Hell.
1. Prologue

Look here. I can't write. In fact, I can't really read either. I don't even what a computer is, let alone work it. But thankfully, there's someone here who can do it for me. While I narrate, she writes it all down for me. Any mistakes are obviously _not_ my fault, but hers. So live with it, people.

(Hika: "Don't worry! I… I have beta-readers! Sorta!")

Also. There's no way this person owns Ragnarok Online. I mean, _look at her!_ Does she _look_ like she's capable of developing a game?! This is a person who fails to finish a single group picture with more than three people in it! _A game_?! Don't make me laugh. She owns me though. Or, should I put it this way – I own her. Though in reality I'm just a voice in her head, in the world of RO, and _my_ world (which I dub Kale's Universe), she's just a voice in _my_ head. So er. Hika doesn't own Ragnarok Online. But I own her. And myself.

I hope I don't have to say that every chapter. Pretend it exists throughout, okay?

* * *

So. Do you believe in Fate?

I don't. I prefer not to. Because then when things go wrong I can say "I was unlucky" (or lucky, depending on how you see it), instead of "It was supposed to happen". I don't like the feeling of being part of some Great Plan, where things happened to me for a reason. A lot of people like to believe in Fate. And God. And the Great Plan. I guess it's because they realise if that's the case, when things go wrong they have something to blame. And something to look forward to. Because, obviously, God doesn't torture a Good person for no reason, so there's obviously something _else_ waiting at the end. The hardships and tortures are mere obstacles to test one's Faith and err… Go talk to Kotone. She forgets, but at least she can always pull out her bible – ripped pages and all – and come up with something.

Screw Fate. Screw God. Screw the Great Plan. Because if everything that happened to me ever since I was born happened because there was a reason, God must truly be screwing with me. In fact, I can probably jump up with the conclusion that he doesn't like me, and decided to make my life hell ever since the day I was born. The type of hell that's sorta lukewarm. Which is a different torture altogether, because if it's boiling you can scream "AGH HOT GOING TO DIE", but when it's lukewarm you scream and people go "AW PFT IT'S ONLY LUKEWARM STOP WHINING".

You guys all understand, right?

That's the pain of a normal person! The pain of lukewarm hell! And small things that don't matter!

Now is the time for me to angst!

Look! Corner!

Yea, right. Pfft.

Okay, look. Let's go through a rewind. I am an unlucky person, in an average sense. I have misfortunes that are so small no one ever bothers about them, because it's not a catastrophic world disaster, nor a terrible tragedy. But that being that, I'm rather lucky to be alive. Sure, lots of Bad Things have happened, but so long as I have enough food to eat and am alive, heck, why not? Unlucky things put to one side, I'm rather happy with my life.

Now, what was I supposed to say before I went off on that tangent again?

Oh. Right. Fate.

Well, I'm not going to start on anything too philosophical, because Philosophy is for idiots with too much time on their hands and enough food to eat. This Fate I'm going to talk about is not all that deep stuff. It's… well, that casual stuff. You know, when you meet a girl and fall in love with her at first sight and then just keep meeting her and meeting her and meeting her and the circumstances are almost as if you were _Fated_ to keep meeting? Yes. I mean that type of Casual Fate. Because it's not so often that you get into coincidences like this.


	2. Step One

**1: The Chicken Leg, Kaze, and Casual Fate**

So. We start with the pretty girl, and the love at first sight bit, because I know you guys are gonna get confused once I start talking about other things without letting you all have some example you all know about to fall back on, right?

"… _if you insist."_

Okay. Continuing with the Casual Fate thing. It starts with the girl you randomly meet, and fall in love with.

"_Mmhm."_

I forgot why my mother chose to leave me at the marketplace in Prontera. I remember bits and pieces, especially that smile of hers and the promise she left with me to be broken. I don't really remember why she chose to abandon me, so I make up my own stories about it. Sometimes I choose to place my mother in a heroic position, where there were evil darklords on her trail and to keep me safe, she had to leave me alone without letting them know what she was doing. Some other times when I was more frustrated with her I'd make up some story about her going off and committing suicide (bloody stupid thing to do, I'd say) like my father. Well, you get the picture, but all that is not important.

This is: My mother left me in the marketplace in Prontera.

"_Gotcha."_

I think I was eight years old then. And like any other stupid eight year old who was raised up by relatively loving and caring parents, I really didn't know what to do. In fact, like any other stupid eight year old raised by relatively loving and caring parents, the me then thought that all adults were nice, kind, helpful people who would love to offer assistance to a stupid lost kid whom his mother just dumped in a marketplace.

Didn't need too long to realise that that was not the case, of course. By then I was upset and cold and distressed, but above all, hungry. It didn't help that I was from a poor family and didn't have what they called Pocket Money that I could save up and keep in my pockets. Well, I had a few _coins_, but they probably wouldn't buy me anything.

That was when they appeared.

"…_they?"_

No, no, not a crowd of pretty girls I fell in love with simultaneously. I wish it could be that. It was a mother and her son, and no I didn't fall in love with the mother. Neither did I fall in love with the son, but that was then – wait, ignore that line and move on without questioning me, I'll get back to him later. I fell in love with the chicken leg they offered me. And god was it a great chicken leg. Shapely and quivering with juices and the smell was just-!

"_Ahem."_

I beg your pardon.

Didn't get to thank them, they were gone by the time I finished chewing all the taste out of the bone. I did remember them, though mother and son had managed to blur into a vague pink blob in my head. Pink because she had red hair and his was silverish-greyish-white. But heck, the chicken stayed clear in my mind. I still remember it now you know, smell and taste and texture and all…

Well, there you have it. The random meeting of a pretty girl one falls in love with at first sight. What? It's different? Of course it isn't! I fell in love with the chicken leg, at first sight, and I have to say it did impact quite a bit on my life, changing a lot of things. Like the fact that my favourite food is the chicken leg now, best roasted and honey glazed.

_Of course it's significant, what do you mean it doesn't matter!?_

Right, away from the Fateful first meeting and on to the next… Speaking of which, lots of things happened in between, but I'll leave that for later so I don't spoil your appetite. They are important though, probably to some extent even more important than this Fateful meeting you'll be hearing a lot about later (I promise you I will whine as much as I can regarding it).

The second meeting happened in Prontera. Probably some seven to eight years later. Around that time span. No, I didn't meet my sweet chicken leg for the second time, I met her many times, ate her many times, relished her flavour many times, and not once got sick of her… What do you mean I sound like a pervert? Ugh, shut up. Anyway, it wasn't my one true love the chicken leg, because I've met her so many times it was no longer a second meeting. Second meeting referring to the son. Yes, the pink- wait. Silver-haired son.

What?

"_But if you're talking about Casual Fate, shouldn't the second meeting be about the chicken leg you fell in love with at first sight, and not the son you didn't fall in love with in the beginning?"_

… You think you're really smart right? Shut up, this is _my_ version of Casual Fate. Part one – the chicken leg. Part two – the son I didn't pay much attention to in part one. It makes sense in my dictionary, so keep reading and stop asking intelligent questions, pssh.

"…_sorry, go on."_

Okay. The son. Don't ask me why I still remembered him after eight years. I think it was partially because of the chicken leg which I never forgot, and the fact that him and his mother sorta… went together with the chicken leg you know? Pink blur and all, I still remembered bits and pieces of their faces. It was also because the guy _still looked the same._ I swear to you Kaze has managed to keep that single bored look on his face, preserved, for at least eight years (maybe more if that look was what he was born with… oh wait, scary thought!).

"_And you were happy to see him again, right?"_

Of course. To celebrate that occasion of happiness I stole his wallet!

"… _you what?!"_

I stole his wallet. What were you expecting? Me running up to hug him? Stupid. Ridiculous. Impossible.

"_Oh fine. I keep forgetting that you're _Kale_, makes everything a lot different huh. Go on. You stole his wallet, and?"_

I think he was in one of his daydreams. Kaze daydreams all the time. You fangirls think he's cool and all that with his bored look and constant silence, to tell you the truth all he's doing is staring into thin air, sleeping with his eyes open! Now tell me what's so charming about that!? Geeze. Anyway, he wasn't paying attention, and that was why I went for him in the first place.

You see, when you pick-pocket, you have to make sure you choose the right victims. If the person you pick on happens to be someone very alert, you're pretty much screwed, and you don't want that to ever happen. He looked completely spaced out, which was why he was such an easy target. I took the wallet off him, pulled out the money, and because I remembered him to be the only person who stopped to give me food (along with his mother), I decided to return him the wallet.

Stupid thing to do, but at least he was too spaced out to notice at that moment. Wasn't the case later, but we'll get there soon.

"_You returned the wallet? How? 'I'm sorry I took a bit of your money out, here, have your wallet back'?"_

I tugged at the corner of his shirt and told him I saw his wallet fall out of his back pocket earlier.

"_Wow. Playing the nice kind passerby huh?"_

Face it, most people love people like me.

Anyway, he turns, right? And the look in his eyes? It's strange, almost as if he recognized me. I was worried for a bit, but the next moment he took the wallet without saying much and nodded before walking off in that sleepwalking-like state of his, and I think I assumed I was safe then.

"_Our Kale succeeds once more in taking money off others…"_

The guy was quite rich. I had enough to treat myself to a nice filling dinner that night, and still leave my pockets feeling rather full.

"_No guilty feelings for the poor guy who assumed he had all that money on him?"_

Nope. Why should I?

"…_shameless."_

I love you too.

If that was the last I saw of him it wouldn't have been so strange. I guess the chances that a person who gave me a chicken leg eight years ago would once more appear in front of me were quite high. A situation like that could be considered strange, but not till you want to point your finger at it and scream "FATE!" at it, right? Yea, here comes the strange bit.

A week after I took the money from him, the Thief Guild told me they were going to introduce a new partner to me – yes, partner! – and move my residence to Prontera. Very weird. Because the Thief Guild isn't a Guild that gave you all that Partnership and Friendship and Work Together And You Will Be Strong crap, they pretty much stressed on individual achievements and solo work, because you didn't see a group of Assassins going to kill some victim in one big friendly group, right? Plus, the Thief Guild was small compared to the other Guilds of Rune Midgard. It was also one of the poorer Guilds. I didn't see why they were even going to offer me a new _house_ to live in. In the Capital City too! Whoa, right?

So anyway, I was supposed to wait in this waiting room for whoever my new partner was. If I was lucky, maybe I'd get Crone. Probably meant I didn't have to do much work.

"_Crone?"_

More about _that_ guy later. Kaze first. Qren, the counter guy who made everyone feel bored just by standing around him, whom I gave constant migranes to – because it was fun – led him in, and I think he recognized me. Because away went the bored look, replaced with a smile.

"_How nice."_

Nice?! NICE!? You don't know how threatening that guy can look when he _smiles_ for god's sake. It's so out of place and so sparkly and _nice_ it's almost certain that he's _up_ to something, okay!? But I had to maintain my composure so I smiled back. And that was how our partnership began.

"_Aw."_

_Aw!?_ Is there something wrong with your brain?! Don't you see what's wrong? The guy who gave me a chicken leg (with his mother) eight years ago, appears in front of me eight years later, tempting me to steal his wallet, and then when I thought that was _all_ I was going to _ever_ see of him anymore, the Thief Guild shoves him at me as my _partner_. Something went wrong, I say. It probably started with that chicken leg, but we shouldn't blame her. I'm going to blame Kaze now. Fucking bastard.

"_Kale-chan… that's not very nice…"_

Meh. You'll understand me once I'm _done_ with this story. But before I go on about Kaze, a few other bits and pieces of my life I need to touch up on. Why? Because if I start with Kaze and end with Kaze all of you are going to think my life started and ended with Kaze! Which is _obviously_ a huge mistake! I, Kale, have my own life, and I'm not going to let Kaze start _and_ end my story. So. I think we oughta fill the gap first. Here, let's talk about that time _after_ the chicken leg, _before_ the wallet was stolen. Which was quite a long time by the way. Longer than the time I spent with Kaze, which is obviously why we all need to pay a bit more attention to it, right?

_Right!?_

"…_whatever you say, Kale-chan."_

Good. So, you still listening? Get your fingers moving faster on the keyboard, damnit. You're making me slow down.

* * *

End Step 1

I have to admit... This is rather messy. XD First person is something Hika doesn't like touching, because she doesn't even have the confidence to make sure the voice is her character's, and not hers. This started one night when Hika opened Microsoft Word and decided to just let Kale ramble a bit about his life. It actually turned out better than my third-person point of view version for Backstep!, so I decided to let him do the talking instead. A few people have said I succeeded with Kale. I hope I did, and I hope even more that I can keep this up for the next few chapters to come. 

Backstep! is Kale's background story. For those who have not read "Stray", some names might come across rather haphazardly, and I apologize for that. I do promise that you'll get to know everyone Kale's mentioned (or will mention) very soon, so please... just bear with the idiot, okay? (smiles)


End file.
